REANNZ has moved!
Need to come see us in our offices? REANNZ moved into their new premises on Level One of 22 The Terrace. We’d be happy to see you so do come visit!
Ian Foster – Big Process for Big Data – Presentation
20/02/2013 11:59
20/02/2013 13:00
Ian Foster, distinguished scientist from Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago, will be in New Zealand to provide the opening keynote to in Multicore World 2013. As part of his visit, he has offered to present on the challenges of data management for the research sector. Remote participation is welcome.
Abstract
Large and diverse data result in challenging data management problems that researchers and facilities are often ill-equipped to handle. I propose a new approach to these problems based on the outsourcing of research data management tasks to software-as-a-service providers. I argue that this approach can both achieve significant economies of scale and accelerate discovery by allowing researchers to focus on research rather than mundane information technology tasks. I present early results with the approach in the context of Globus Online.
Attend in Person
VUW staff, students and visitors are welcome to attend the session in person.
| Time | midday, Wednesday 20 February 2013 |
| Room | RWW 224 |
| Building | Railway Station West Wing |
Attend Remotely..
..by video conference
You will need to download the Scopia Desktop Client, which is available for MS Windows and OS X viahttp://sds.karen.net.nz/scopia?client. Before the meeting, we recommend you test everything out by connecting to room 6222. This is a test room, open 24h.
Here are the meeting details:
| Start time | midday, Wednesday 20 February 2013 |
| Meeting ID | 6532 |
If you run another operating system, you can connect to the meeting via H.323. Download a client, such as Ekiga and use the IP address 130.195.23.14, or 130.195.23.21 if you are behind a firewall. To join a meeting, dial 0 then the meeting ID, which is 6532 and finish with #.
..by telephone
Please dial +64 4 499 8283. You will then be prompted for the meeting ID. Dial 6532 and #.
Presented by
 |
 |
NZNOG 2013
Doing something interesting in the Internetworking space? Submit a paper and be in to win a trip to Singapore.
The NZNOG organising committee invites papers for its 12th annual conference, to be hosted at the Mercure Hotel, Wellington, New Zealand from 21 – 25 January 2013. There will be three days of Workshops (21 – 23 January), a day of tutorials (23 January) with the main conference on 24 – 25 January.
The NZNOG conference, workshops and tutorials are a once-a-year opportunity for individuals and organisations involved in Internet operations to meet and share the latest in Internet operations, technologies practises and receive high quality training.
The event is unique in New Zealand and attracts technical, skilled individuals with a genuine interest in Internet operations and Internetworking technologies.
Presenters are invited to submit abstracts of their paper for consideration by Monday 5 November. The best national paper – as judged by a selection of members from the organising team – will win return flights from New Zealand, accommodation, and conference fees to the next APRICOT conference in Singapore.
More details on paper submission can be found at http://www.nznog.org/call-for-
REANNZ Network Service Enhancements
Our engineers have recently completed a thorough review of our network architecture. As a result, we’ve identified actions we can take to increase network resiliency, provide greater flexibility in services, and implement the hardware / software upgrades necessary to support the community’s expansion and traffic growth. Over the next few weeks, we will be putting these plans into action.
In particular, we expect the following changes to occur:
- The rescheduled addition of extra 10Gb/s capacity to the Auckland switch
- Software upgrades across all network equipment
- Replacement of core routers for enhanced stability, functionality, vendor support and reduced operational costs overheads
- Architectural changes to an MPLS-based core infrastructure for increased resiliency to failures and better traffic engineering
- Introduction of a new link between Avalon and Christchurch for improved resiliency across Cook Strait
Some of these upgrades will cause short outages or disrupt traffic flowing across the network. While these interruptions can not be avoided, we will work with you to mitigate the impact of these outages as much as possible. So that you can plan accordingly, REANNZ will provide specific outage notifications once the exact dates and impacts of each change are finalised, we publish this information via our “noc” mailing list, on our website and on the REANNZ Event calendar.
We are excited by the enhanced level of service these changes will provide for members, and we appreciate your understanding while these improvements are made. If you have any comments or concerns, please contact us at operations@reannz.co.nz.
REANNZ Internet New Pricing
REANNZ delivers reduced Internet pricing to our members
At the outset of the REANNZ Internet service we committed to our membership that we would regularly review the price of the offering and pass on any savings. We have conducted a review of the service and are delighted to be able to offer reduced pricing to every new and subscribed member.
For more information on REANNZ Internet, how you can have this service delivered to you, and how you can benefit from an outstanding commodity Internet deal, see our website.
Did you know that REANNZ has a dedicated and growing team of network engineers available to help you get the most out of your connection and to support deliver of this service? If you are planning an internal network upgrade, have specific data to move between locations or are just looking to tune for speed contact us at operations@reannz.co.nz.
Land Information NZ now on the REANNZ Network
Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) is connected to our network. 
LINZ is responsible for land titles, geodetic and cadastral survey systems, topographic information, hydrographic information and the management of Crown property. This new connectivity to the REANNZ Network allows REANNZ members access to LINZ’s charts, hydrographic services, maps and topographic services (the LINZ Data Service will be available later in the year).
For the REANNZ members who consume this wealth of data, this means no more shipping hard disks or USB sticks around the country, or the world. To make use of this connectivity, you do not have to do anything “special”, just go about your “usual” business activities, and enjoy the increased speeds this new connectivity allows.
NeSI Roadshow Across the Country
How can the nation’s eScience Infrastructure benefit your research?
Join our partners, the New Zealand eScience Infrastructure team, at their roadshow around New Zealand.
Learn how your research can benefit from high performance computing (HPC) facilities. NeSI provides HPC and other services for researchers. The team will explain what services are available, how they help and how to access them.
For more information, or to contact the NeSI team see their website.
The REANNZ team will also be joining the roadshow, if you have any questions, or would like to meet us, please email.
REANNZ Connected Schools and their Network Use
Value for Schools Being Part of the REANNZ Community is Demonstrated
We have recently completed projects to monitor schools network traffic. The Mid Canterbury Schools cluster connected to the REANNZ Network in 2011. During Term 2, 2012, as part of a project for the Ministry of Education, we monitored the traffic that this cluster of 23 schools generated. The data collected clearly shows the value of being part of the REANNZ community.
The numbers - for the total cluster traffic:
- 48.5% travelled over the REANNZ Network
- 26.7% came across REANNZ’s international link from Sydney
- 33.3% was sourced from New Zealand based caches
Once a school is connected and part of the REANNZ community they have “all you can eat” access to the network for a fixed fee, unlike most ISPs.
The more content and services that are available on our network, the greater the value is to our members. Through our “settlement-free-peering policy” REANNZ is continuously adding content to the network, meaning that as more content is carried on the REANNZ Network, ISP fees that our members have to pay, will go down.
Find the report here, and see our website if you want to join the REANNZ community.
Are you interested in how well your home, school or work broadband connection is? Join the thousands who have tested and compared their ISP’s performance on the New Zealand Broadband Test website.
REANNZ and Pacific Fibre
REANNZ International Connectivity Assured
Pacific Fibre announced today that it has not been able to reach its commitments, and that their Board will be winding down the company.
There are several options that REANNZ is considering that will meet our community’s aspirations and needs for international connectivity.
“I want to assure our membership and stakeholders, that the REANNZ Network will continue to connect New Zealand’s bright, talented people to the world. We are considering alternate options that will ensure our network connectivity continues to serve the needs of our community. We are disappointed that Pacific Fibre has been unable to achieve their commitments – the competition they were bringing to New Zealand was going to change the nature and scale of New Zealand’s connectivity to the world” says Steve Cotter.
“A 13,000km cable is clearly an audacious thing to try and do. We were fortunate to find supportive shareholders, fantastic staff and early customer support from the likes of REANNZ and Vodafone” said Pacific Fibre chairman Sam Morgan.
REANNZ has been proud to support and be involved with the venture from the outset and was fully aware of the risks and hurdles that Pacific Fibre faced. Pacific Fibre has kept REANNZ informed with the developments and progress they have been making.
For more information, please contact Steve Cotter, REANNZ CEO.
Apply to access the NeSI Compute Facilities
Access proposals to the NeSI Compute Facilities are now open
The New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI) invites applications to access its facilities. NeSI is a collaboration of universities and CRIs providing access to compute resources for researchers across the country. The process is neutral of discipline or institution. We strongly recommend all interested research teams to apply for access.
The call closes 27th July 2012. We are receiving applications via the Proposal Development and Research allocation classes. Proposal Development is designed for project teams new to high performance computing to evaluate their applications on NeSI’s facilities at zero cost with full support. This class provides a relatively small allocation for a few months. Projects within the Research allocation class have received funding from a peer-reviewed grant process, such as the Marsden Fund. These grants are far larger allocations for a full year. They provided at either 80% or 100% subsidy, depending on the research team’s situation.
Find more information here